How Mindfulness Meditation Helped My Fitness Journey

I started my fitness journey back in 2014, after two years living outside my native country, Spain, where eating habits and daily activity levels were quite different. My diet back home was mostly Mediterranean and I lived on a farm; my mom would use a lot of fresh herbs, meat and homemade sauces. In regards to activity, Spaniards love to walk instead of using a vehicle to get everywhere, as we do here. Therefore, living in a foreign country changed my lifestyle, which started getting worse by gaining weight, becoming more stressed and being depressed. 

Coming from a family with a history of mental health diseases, it made me really think about my health since I have a roughly forty percent chance of getting one of them. All of these circumstances in my life made me think twice about changing drastically myself, not only physically, but mentally. I had never exercised before, never liked sports growing up, always failed PT exams back in school; I knew this new journey was going to be quite challenging, and definitely not easy. 

Stepping into a gym for the first time was a nightmare, I had no idea how to start. Some days I would just sit in my car in front of the gym crying, scared of walking in and being laughed at because I was unhappy about myself. All of these frustrations and insecurities led me to learn more about the industry and get certified as a personal trainer and nutritionist. 

Courtesy of Vinambres.

My life changed completely after I went to school; I felt more confident about what I was doing and I started teaching others how to do the same. Even now, this journey hasn’t stopped teaching me new lessons, not only from the body but from the mind. While the whole world was going through a pandemic, I have been learning how to take care of my emotions. Staying at home for a lot of hours you can either go crazy or really confront your feelings, which is not easy for anyone. This is what inspired me to begin practicing mindfulness meditation, where you focus on being intensely aware of what you are sensing and feeling at the moment. This practice has been helping me daily to not let the external situations affect me, and learn from them instead. Now, I can say that before training your body, you have to train your mind. Once the mind is trained, you can achieve pretty much anything. That’s where the popular saying comes into play “the body achieves what the mind believes.” 

You can find Vinambres on Instagram @adrilegion